Bloodborne & The Old Hunters Collector’s Edition Guides

Future Press gone behind the scenes with Bloodborne's creators to unearth every secret hidden within the mysterious city of Yharnam. Your hunt through the streets of Yharnam will be your most exciting and rewarding journey yet, and the road will be hard. But fear not! These guides are your key to mastering the merciless challenges and navigating the darkest depths of the city. [More]

Description

At first glance these enemies resemble the axe-wielding Huntsmen, but a colony of parasitic snakes will burst from their heads as soon as they detect you. Snake Parasites use their axes in a similar fashion to Huntsmen that carry the same weapon, but their snakes' attacks are much less predictable and will build up your slow poison meter if they hit you. The snakes can strike around the host in a 360-degree radius, spit a frontal cloud of poison, and perform rapid forward combo attacks which have strong directional tracking. The host and snakes together will sometimes perform a grab attack, which is certain to inflict slow poison on the spot; they can use a stationary version of this move at close range and a running version from up to three meters away. The host can also summon Snake Balls using a high-pitched whistle, potentially complicating the encounter. Snake Parasites have high physical defense, but take respectable damage from elemental attacks such as Molotovs.

Strategy

Avoid standing close to these opponents for more than a couple of seconds at a time - they can attack you from any direction and their snakes' rapid strikes will quickly poison you. Instead, take advantage of their slow speed and bait their attacks from just outside their reach, then quickstep forward and hit them from behind with R1 combos, or use far-reaching charged R2 swings from weapons such as the Rifle Spear or Hunter's Axe. It is possible to interrupt them, but doing so is impractical due to their unpredictability and the precise timing required. If fighting more than one at a time, Molotovs or other ranged weapons are the safest solution; these enemies have strong super armor and trying to hit several at once with sweeping horizontal attacks will almost always cause you to trade blows. If you have no choice but to clear several of them out of an area in order to proceed, lure them one at a time with Pebbles and fight them away from the other enemies.

Blood Gem Drop Table [Forbidden Woods, common-max]

Gem

Shape

Rating

Primary Effect

Secondary Effect

Tempering Blood Gemstone (3)

Radial

8

Phys ATK UP +5.4%

Add slow poison effect +1.4

Radiant Blood Gemstone (2)

Radial

7

Reduces stamina cost 1.6%

Add slow poison effect +1.4

Adept Blood Gemstone (3)

Radial

8

Blunt/Thrust ATK UP +6.5%

Add slow poison effect +1.6

Heavy Blood Gemstone (3)

Radial

8

STR scaling 5.4

Add slow poison effect +1.6

Variants

Unexposed variant with hat.

Unexposed variant with top hat.

Exposed variant.

Notes

Exposed version has 588 HP

During Snake Parasite grab attack animation, 80%-60%-40% damage can be reduced and take less of Slow Poison build-up if you are repeatedly pressing buttons (mashing). It is also possible to escape its grab entirely if buttons are pressed quickly enough just before the grab lands on you.

Despite Snake Parasite having 999 Slow Poison resistance it is still vulnerable to such status.